Aqueduct Walk

Morton Playground

In the early 19th century, New York City grew
faster and larger than any other city in the Western Hemisphere. Like most
American cities of the time, New York suffered from an unreliable and polluted
water supply. Terrible fires and recurring epidemics of yellow fever and cholera
periodically devastated the city. In 1834 the state legislature approved a
plan to use the Croton River as the city's water supply. Construction began
in 1837 to build the Croton Dam, a 41-mile-long conduit, 114 stone culverts,
numerous bridges and embankments, and reservoirs at Central Park and 42nd
Street and Fifth Avenue (now Bryant Park). The Croton Aqueduct opened with
great fanfare on July 4, 1842. The gravity-fed system, completed at a cost
of about $13.5 million, was one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th
century.

The Croton Aqueduct stretched 41 miles from
Croton Dam, through Westchester County and the Bronx, and into Manhattan.
Most of the property which became the park known as "Aqueduct Lands" was acquired
by condemnation between 1837 and 1838, with additional parcels annexed in
1895, 1953, and 1973. In 1930 the Department of Parks was given surface rights
to the lands held by the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity.
Restrictions limited development to playground use and to light construction
and planting.

The "shoestring" park--so called for its long
and skinny shape--was developed in the 1930s and 1940s with paved paths, game
tables, benches, handball courts, shuffleboard courts, and three playgrounds.
The playground at Morton Place opened in 1947. Both street and playground
were named for Thomas Morton, who bought part of the Benjamin Berrian farm
in 1855. The Old Croton Aqueduct was closed permanently in 1965 and was listed
on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1974. It
was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992, on the 150th anniversary
of the New York Water Supply System.

In 1998 Council Member Adolfo Carrion Jr. funded
the $650,000 reconstruction of Morton Playground. The playground design features
sculpted beavers that serve as spray showers as well as a colored concrete
map of the route of the Aqueduct, depicting landmarks along the former water
route. The renovated basketball courts have new surfacing and hoops, and a
new steel gate, adorned with a sculpture of Morton the Cat, protects the entrance.